Water Footprint

Track your water footprint, not just your tap.

Most water use never shows up on a meter. It is embedded in food, energy and clothing, and lost in pipes before it arrives. Measure it for a person, an organisation, a portfolio, a city, a country or a whole river basin.

Where the Water Goes

Using water is part of a good life. What matters is where it comes from and how much is wasted. Move the sliders to match a typical week: the figure covers green, blue and grey water, and scarcity-weighted blue water weighs each litre by how stressed its source is.

Your answers stay in your browser, and The Water Foundation does not receive or store them.

Where you live

How scarce water is where you live weights the water you use at home.

Food

3,636 L, 79 to 82%

With the rest of your diet, counted at the global average consumer's

Beef meals

A week, about 150 g each. Beef takes about 15,400 L per kg.
Pork meals

A week, about 150 g each. Pork takes about 6,000 L per kg.
Poultry meals

A week, about 150 g each. Chicken takes about 4,300 L per kg.
Glasses of milk

250 ml glasses a day. Milk takes about 1,000 L per kg.
Cheese

Portions of 30 g a day. Cheese takes about 5,060 L per kg.
Cups of coffee

A day, about 130 L a cup.
Rice

Portions of 75 g, dry, a week. Rice takes about 2,600 L per kg.
Sugar

Grams a day, in drinks and sweets too. Sugar takes about 1,580 L per kg.
Almonds

Handfuls of 30 g a week. Almonds take about 16,000 L per kg.
Food you throw away

As a share of the food you buy.

Home and Garden

14 L, 0.3%

Time in the shower

Minutes a day. A standard showerhead runs about 9.5 L a minute.
Baths

A week. A bath takes about 80 to 265 L, from a typical bath to a full tub.
Garden watering

Cubic metres a year, as your meter or your bill reads it.
Private pool

Its water surface. Uncovered, a pool loses about 1 to 2.5 m³ per m² a year to evaporation.
Your wastewater goes to a treatment plant

Where it does not, what goes down the drain counts as grey water.

Clothes and Travel

142 to 257 L, 3.2 to 5.7%

New cotton T-shirts

A year, about 250 g each. A T-shirt takes about 2,700 L.
Driving

How far you drive in a year.
Your car's fuel use

Litres per 100 km. Producing a litre of petrol consumes 2.8 to 6.6 L of water.
Ethanol in your tank

E10 is 10%. Ethanol takes about 1,200 to 2,900 L per litre, by crop.
Short-haul flights

Return flights a year, about 1,300 km each way. One burns about 90 L of jet fuel a passenger, and producing jet fuel takes 4.1 to 7.4 L per litre.
Long-haul flights

Return flights a year, about 4,700 km each way; count a flight twice as far as two. One burns about 330 L of jet fuel a passenger.

AI and Digital

656 ml to 25 L, up to 0.6%

The water behind prompts, generated media and streaming

AI chat prompts

A medium-length GPT-3 response took roughly 10 to 50 ml with its electricity.
AI images

A week, about 3 to 12 ml each with its electricity.
AI video clips

Five-second clips a month, about 4 L each with its electricity.
Video streaming

Hours a day, video calls too: from under 0.1 L to about 12 L an hour.

The Unexpected

356 L, 7.8 to 8.0%

Small habits with surprisingly large footprints

Chocolate

Bars of 100 g a week, about 1,700 L a bar.
Avocados

A week, about 200 g each. Avocados take about 2,000 L per kg.
Wine

125 ml glasses a week, about 110 L a glass.
Beer

250 ml glasses a week, about 75 L a glass.
Cut roses

Bouquets of 12 stems a year. A rose from Lake Naivasha in Kenya takes about 9 L a stem.

Your Water Footprint

Certificate

4,435 to 4,575 L a day

In Other Units

Litres a day: 4,435 to 4,575
Litres a year: 1.6 to 1.7 million
Cubic metres a year: 1,619 to 1,670
Tonnes a year: 1,619 to 1,670

A cubic metre of water weighs about a tonne.

In Everyday Terms

Baths a day, at about 80 to 265 L each: 16.7 to 57.2
Hours a day under a standard shower, at about 9.5 L a minute: 7.8 to 8.1
Adults, each drinking about 2 L a day: 2,218 to 2,288
Olympic pools a year, at 2,500 m³ each: 0.6 to 0.7

You

4,435 to 4,575 L

Global average consumer 1996 to 2005

3,795 L

You are 17 to 21% above the global average consumer. The largest share is the rest of your diet, counted at the global average consumer's. AI and digital use adds up to 0.6%, the unexpected items 7.8 to 8.0%.

What It Is Made Of

The rest of your diet, as the global average consumer's 1,577 L, 34 to 36% of the total
Rice, sugar and almonds 248 L, 5.4 to 5.6% of the total
Meat 772 L, 17% of the total
Dairy 407 L, 8.9 to 9.2% of the total
Coffee 390 L, 8.5 to 8.8% of the total
Food thrown away 241 L, 5.3 to 5.4% of the total
Home, garden and pool 14 L, 0.3% of the total
Clothing 60 L, 1.3% of the total
Driving 82 to 196 L, 1.8 to 4.3% of the total
Flying 1.0 to 1.8 L, under 0.1% of the total
Other goods, as the global average consumer's 286 L, 6.3 to 6.5% of the total
AI and digital 656 ml to 25 L, up to 0.6% of the total
The unexpected 356 L, 7.8 to 8.0% of the total

Green, Blue and Grey

Green 3,467 to 3,564 L, 78% Rain stored in soil, taken up by crops
Blue 434 to 462 L, 9.8 to 10% Drawn from rivers, lakes and aquifers
Grey 534 to 549 L, 12% Needed to dilute pollution to safe levels

Scarcity-Weighted Blue Water

17,557 to 17,986 L world-equivalent a day

Germany: factor 2.09

Each litre of blue water is weighted by how scarce water is where it was used, so 434 to 462 L of blue water weighs as much as 17,557 to 17,986 L at the world's average scarcity: 39.0 to 40.5 times its volume.

Water used at home counts at Germany's AWARE 2.0 factor of 2.09. Water in goods counts at the factor of where it was grown, or at the world factor where that is not known: 43.1 for farm water and 17.9 for the rest. Green water is not weighted: the method covers water taken from rivers, lakes and aquifers.

AI and the Unexpected, Largest First

Chocolate 246 L
Avocados 57 L
Wine 31 L
Beer 21 L
Video streaming 189 ml to 24 L
Cut roses 1.2 L
AI chat prompts 200 ml to 1.0 L
AI video clips 262 ml
AI images 4 to 18 ml

16.7 to 57.2 baths a day, at about 80 to 265 L each
0.3% of your footprint is water at home
142 L a day through your water meter, most of it returned

Small Changes, Big Rivers

Keep what you love. One easy change for each part of life, largest saving first.

Meat

772 L
- Saves 264 L a day, 5.8 to 6.0% of your total
  
  Swap one beef meal a week for chicken. The burger can stay for special occasions.
Driving

82 to 196 L
- Saves 16 to 39 L a day, 0.4 to 0.9% of your total
  
  Swap a fifth of your car trips for the bike or the train.
Clothing

60 L
- Saves 22 L a day, 0.5% of your total
  
  Buy a third of your cotton second-hand. A pre-worn T-shirt has already paid its water bill.
Home, Garden and Pool

14 L
- Saves 1.9 L a day, under 0.1% of your total
  
  Two minutes less in the shower. Pick a shorter song. Your meter reads 19 L less a day.
Flying

1.0 to 1.8 L
- Saves 1.0 to 1.8 L a day, under 0.1% of your total
  
  Take one short-haul return flight fewer a year, or go by train.
- AI and Digital
  
  Worth knowing
  
  Your AI prompts take 200 ml to 1.0 L a day with their electricity. One 100 g bar of chocolate takes about 1,700 L. The chocolate is the bigger story.

Water Footprint

Where the Water Goes

Where You Live

Food

Home and Garden

Clothes and Travel

AI and Digital

The Unexpected

Your Water Footprint

What It Is Made Of

Green, Blue and Grey

Scarcity-Weighted Blue Water

AI and the Unexpected, Largest First

Small Changes, Big Rivers

Meat

Driving

Clothing

Home, Garden and Pool

Flying

AI and Digital

Choose What to Calculate